Page 92 of The Secrets We Hide
“They’re stored in the back.”
“Can you take us there?”
Barbara logged out of the computer. She grabbed a large key ring and motioned for them to follow her to the other side of the building. She badged them through a door marked STAFF ONLY, then through a room taken up by a giant machine with conveyor belts that sorted returned books. The next door took them down a long hallway. Barbara stopped at the end, where yet another door was marked ARCHIVES. She searched her key ring until she found the right one.
Emmy asked, “May I see that?”
Barbara showed her the dimple key that was intended for a high-security lock. “This used to be our computer room back when they were super expensive. In today’s dollars, we’re talking about eight grand each. Priciest things in the library, if you can believe it.”
Emmy asked, “Did Allison have a copy of this key?”
“Yeah, we gave her one along with a badge so she could let herself back here.” Barbara slipped the key into the lock. “Now that I think about it, she returned the badge, but she didn’t hand in the key.”
“Did you give her any other keys?”
Barbara shook her head. “No, the keys for the cam locks are on hooks inside.”
Jude almost laughed. Cam locks, or tubular locks, required a barrel key, the same as certain models of safes. She didn’t know who was more clever, Allison for leaving the clues or Emmy for figuring them out.
Barbara opened the door. “We’ve been trying to digitize these, but there’s not enough money.”
Jude felt a chill in the air when she trailed Emmy into the room. This was more like the old library she remembered. Painted cinder block walls. Carpet that smelled of damp. Papers over-flowing from trays. Stuffed folders held together by thick rubber bands. The only nod to modernity was an ancient IBM laptop with a pile of CD-ROMs beside it. They were sandwiched between two large machines on a wooden table: one for reading microfilm and the other for microfiche.
The machines were designed to read the same type of storage—transparent film with nearly microscopic images of printed documents. They used mirrors and magnification to make the tiny images legible to the human eye. It was the internet before there was an internet, except much slower and more accurate.
Jude assumed that the films were stored in the floor-to-ceiling drawers that took up the entire back wall of the room. There had to be more than one hundred in all. The cabinets were at least thirty inches deep. Each of the skinny drawers was roughly four inches tall by two feet wide. Every single one had a number plate beside a cam lock with the distinctive, round keyhole.
Barbara explained. “Old Dr. Cod, the former library director, was worried about communist sympathizers accessing the town data.”
Jude remembered Old Dr. Cod in his youth. He’d sat behind his desk and stared at her legs every time she’d walked in.
“Jude?” Emmy pointed to the six key rings hanging from hooks by the door. There were multiple barrel keys for the locks. White labels were taped to each key, but the numbers were faded.
“Sorry it’s such a mess. Microfiche isn’t exactly popular with our clientele. I think Allison was the only one back here this year.” Barbara pointed to the labels on the drawers. “City planning documents. Clifton County charters. Historical records. Deeds and titles. Journals. Newspapers. Magazines.”
Emmy asked, “How often did Allison come back?”
“A few hours at a time. Usually around lunch.”
“When was this?”
“Maybe two months ago? Then on Thursday she told me she had to check something real quick. I used my badge to take her back, but I didn’t see her leave.”
“Thursday?” Emmy repeated.
Two days before Allison was murdered.
“Yeah,” Barbara said. “Crazy, right?”
Emmy asked, “When you say she was in here for hours, do you mean over a few days? Weeks?”
“Maybe a couple of weeks? Never on the weekends. The readers act up, so I’d have to come back here sometimes and slap it on the side.”
Jude asked, “Which machine did she use?”
Barbara pointed to the microfiche reader. “You know how to work it?”
“Yes,” Jude said. “Do you have any idea what Allison was looking at?”
